Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif deserves a pat on the back for launching a successful campaign to weed out dengue that in the past three weeks had claimed some more lives. His commitment not only to rid the people of the clutches of the menace but set up a model for other federating units to undertake such precautionary measures. Last year, it was believed that it would take at least five to ten years before the province could be declared dengue free. On Saturday, while inaugurating an international dengue conference he paid glowing compliments to his team for working round the clock and people of the province also for their cooperation that resulted in elimination of the disease. He rightly declared that the war on dengue would continue that alone would block the way of the scourge from staging a comeback. Last year, 21,000 patients were registered while 252 deaths were reported. This year the number has drastically reduced. A contributing factor has been that in 2011, experts from Indonesia and Sri Lanka were invited to assist the efforts against dengue while over 300 people were sent abroad for training. Another important aspect of the dengue war was that the campaign was spread all over the province; the focus was not solely on Lahore. At district and tehsil levels, special squads were assembled with cooperation from NGOs working in these areas.